So someone had waaay too much fun writing this. Hopefully you will have as much fun reading it (if anyone actually reads it)

Garrett POV

The cold air bit into my skin no matter how tightly I pulled my jacket around my body, and I found myself unconsciously drifting closer to Carlisle as we walked. Which wasn't a good thing. The setting was way too romantic for that. Snow fell in down in a light shower and the night seemed deeper than usual; much darker than normal, but the street lamps created a soft orange light and long shadows which fell across the street. Every time we passed under one, the melted snowflakes on Carlisle's jacket lit up, sparkling like they had a life of their own. But I wasn't looking at that; I was far too focused on his face.
He watched the ground as we made our way home, his wet hair plastered to his forehead. We were both soaked to the skin and shivering. He glanced up at me, our eyes meeting, and I felt my face become warm. "They're cute together," he murmured, breaking the silence which had settled over us.
I grinned, breathing out a sigh of relief. "They are." We'd just had dinner with Kate and Siobhan, who had announced that they were officially a couple. I hadn't had the courage yet to come out to Carlisle, who was my best friend, and I was absolutely terrified that he might be upset or reject them or something.
"It took them long enough," he chuckled, blowing into his fingers to try and warm them up. "I've been hoping they would for ages."
"Really?" I asked hopefully, my heart fluttering in my chest.
He shot me a curious look, trying to hide a smile. "I guess so. I ship them. Maybe you could even go as far as saying they're my OPT."
You and me are my OPT, I restrained from saying, trying to hide my face from him immediately after thinking it as my cheeks became red. Instead I pushed him lightly, making him slid a little on the frozen footpath. "Oh my god. Are you a teenaged girl?" I teased, forcing a laugh.
He giggled, scrambling to gain his footing again. "Maybe." As he started to fall, I wrapped my arm around his waist to stop him from hitting the ground. He was freezing. "You're really cold, Garrett," he told me. Concern flashed across his face.
"Says you," I murmured, trying not to focus on how unbelievably close his lips were to mine. My voice shook and I winced at the sound.
Carlisle hugged me suddenly, obviously thinking my falter was due to my temperature. "Maybe we should get some coffee or something?" he mumbled against my shoulder, his arms around my waist.
I laughed. "Who is going to serve us coffee at 1 am, Carlisle?" In reality I was giddy with joy that he was touching me on purpose.
"Starbucks?" he suggested.
I nodded enthusiastically, cringing as the gentle snow turned to a less appealing, heavy sleet. Grabbing his hand, I ran in the direction of the outlet, continuously slipping and sliding on the pavement. By the time we burst in the door we both looked like drowned rats and were panting. Well, I was panting. Carlisle was laughing at me. "Jerk," I teased, elbowing him playfully.
"You need to get out more," he teased back, going to the counter and ordering two cups of coffee before I could argue with him about who was paying.
"Thank you," I mumbled instead, clenching my jaw so my teeth didn't chatter.
He folded his arms tightly, trying to keep at least a little warmth in his body. It seemed like an eternity before our cups were handed to us, but once they were in reach I was forcing scolding liquid down my throat faster than I could swallow. While I was being a pig, Carlisle took tentative sips of his, trying not to burn himself in the process.
"You're such a girl," I mocked as we walked out. "Suck it up."
"Shut up," he dead-panned, smiling at me, water running down his face.
I almost choked; good god, he was beautiful.

By the time we got back to our flat, I was in physical pain. My entire body ached, my limbs felt like lead and I had a pounding head ache. I couldn't think straight and just stared at Carlisle blankly as he handed me a towel.
"Shower, Garrett," he instructed, turning me around in the direction of the bathroom. "I'm not doing that for you."
Despite the fact I was freezing, my face was suddenly very, very hot. "Don't you need to…" I started, knowing he was as cold as I was.
"You go first." He nudged me forward again and this time I forced my legs to move.

The hot water didn't help much; I still couldn't stop shivering, even after I'd showered. Carlisle was in the same state; standing in the doorway watching me as I sheltered in a blanket on the couch.
"Carlisle…" I started, unsure how to ask him.
He hesitated, before going and turning the TV on, picking up the Xbox remotes and coming and sitting next to me, handing me one.
I wrapped the blanket around him as well, moving closer so we were touching.
"Why don't we own a heater?" he whined quietly, leaning against me a little.
An overwhelming urge to cuddle him washed over me. "Because we're poor ass Uni students?" I suggested.
"Yet we have an Xbox," he paused. "At least we have our priorities right, I guess." We glanced at each other and burst out laughing.

After several hours of Halo (A/N: ishipthem1, the only game I know a little about;)), I feel asleep, still sitting with Carlisle. When I woke up again, I'd somehow wound my arms around him, effectively cuddling up to him as we lay on the couch together. This is new, I thought to myself. We defiantly didn't do things like this normally. Embarrassed, I sat up, not wanting him to be upset with me, but badly wanting to stay there.
I felt disgusting; simultaneously too hot and too cold, my head still thumped and my body groaned every time I tried to move. I wasn't sure that I could actually move that far anyway.
"Garrett…" Carlisle mumbled sleepily. When he spoke it sounded like his throat hurt.
"Hmm?" I didn't trust my own voice to come out properly either.
"Cant we just stay here?" he asked hopefully, referring to the lectures we had later in the day.
I nodded in relief, closing my eyes again and leaning back against the seat. I felt him shift and then he was hugging me again, his head coming to rest on my shoulder. "You're sick," I accused, feeling his temperature.
"So are you," he mumbled back, squeezing me a little.
"I don't feel so good," I admitted childishly, partly ashamed.
He just nodded, one hand tracing circles in my back, almost enough to out me to sleep again.
It felt so good to be close to him; not only was I in possession of a human hot water bottle, but it was Carlisle. The boy who had driven me crazy for months. I had almost been successful in smothering my crush on him, but now my heart beat erratically as he touched me. When his hand came to rest on my thigh, my pulse shot through the roof. Although it was killing me, he didn't seem to think anything of the contact.

The shrill sound of a phone ringing woke me up again. It was dark outside, meaning I'd slept all day.
"Carlisle." I nudged him awake again, trying to fight off the ringing in my ears.
"Hmm?" He was barely conscious, not even aware of the obnoxious noise.
"Answer it," I whined. "Or turn it off…" As much as I liked the thought of putting my hand in his pocket, I wasn't sure he would be so accepting of it.
"Jesus," he mumbled, trying to pull it out of his jeans. "Hello?"
I couldn't focus on the conversation anyway, even if I could only hear one side.
After a minute he groaned.
"What?" I pressed, shifting closer and wrapping my arms around him again.
"Siobhan's coming." He didn't look happy.
"Why?" I laughed. "I though you loved her." It was common knowledge that Carlisle liked Siobhan, and a sort of conspiracy that me and Kate had that they had been in a relationship.
"Because Kate's an asshole." He ignored the last half of my comment.
"Ugh. She thinks we cant look after ourselves? How did she even know we got sick?" I grumbled.
"She believes we are incapable – which is maybe kind of true…we did do this to ourselves. And she guessed after we walked back, goddammit." He tossed his phone across the floor.
"Don't break that," I teased. "It'll be months before you can get another one."
"I don't need it. You're already here anyway. I don't need to talk to anyone else." He smiled at me shyly.
Why, why did he have to make those comments so casually? Did he have no idea how much it messed with me? God, I felt like I was having a heart attack. I forced myself to laugh, but my returning smile was genuine. "You're so cute." I froze; I had under no circumstance ever meant that to come out of my mouth. It was a desperate effort not to let myself turn red; I had said it, and therefore I had to roll with it. Dear god, Garrett. What have you done?
He just laughed. "And? You're adorable."
Okay, crisis averted. Nothing was weird. I had just admitted to my best friend and long-term crush that I thought he was cute, while snuggled up to him on the couch, and he had returned the favour. Returned it in a joking way, right? He didn't actually think I was adorable.
I cleared my throat, trying to clear my head along with it. "So, um, were you and Siobhan ever, ah, you know…together?"
He froze, pulling at the seams of his clothing. "You mean…dating?" he asked cautiously, a hint of nervousness in his tone.
"I guess." My eyes were trained on his face, trying to gage his reaction.
"No." He blushed and looked away.
"Liar," I announced arrogantly, pushing him. Because of the angle we were on I only ended up falling on him more. Not that I was complaining.
"Okay, fine. We weren't really 'together'…but we…we um, we tried to…" he trailed off, not wanting to tell me.
"You slept with her?" I jumped to my feet, standing mockingly in front of him, hands on hips. My head swam but I tried to ignore it.
"No- I mean, I tried, but it didn't work- shut up. Don't look at me like that." He covered his face with his hands, trying to avoid talking about it. "Aren't you supposed to be sick?"
"Yes, but this is more important," I grinned. "So, how does it feel to have slept with a lesbian?"
"Garrett! Oh my god!" he was laughing now, trying not to cough in the process.
"Seriously, though. Isn't that like every guy's dream?" I was giggling too, unable to help myself.
"You're a jerk. Shut up and sit down." He grabbed my hand and jerked me back down beside him.
I immediately lent on him again. Even though we were both as equally feverish, I still wanted to suck the heat out of him. There was a knock on the door as soon as I sat down.
"You better both have pants on," Siobhan warned, unlocking the door.
"How does she have a key?" Carlisle whispered.
"She must have got it from Kate."
"And why did Kate have a key?" he smirked at me.
I blushed, guilty of exactly what he suspected. "For emergencies?" I tried.
"Sure," he agreed sarcastically. "If you call sleeping alone an emergency."
"Technically we weren't sleeping. So I still slept alone. She went home because we knew you'd do exactly this when you found out," I quipped.
"You liked her?" he teased.
"No. It was only for sex. Think of it as two friends with a common interest."
"Is that what we are?"
I swallowed thickly, my mouth suddenly dry. "Um…" Thankfully I didn't have to provide an answer; Siobhan stood in front of us, interrupting the conversation.
"I hear we did not take very good care of ourselves last night?" she questions, smirking at Carlisle who looked like he wished he could dissolve.
"We're fine, thank you very much," he told her, coughing immediately after speaking.
She laughed softly and shook her head. "Go on, go to bed. Cuddling on the couch is not the same as bed rest." She pointed down the hallway.
"Why are you even here?" he whined softly, in protest to moving, I think.
"Don't worry, I'll leave you alone soon. I have other plans. Plans with Kate, which you are interrupting, I might add."
We both groaned and Carlisle slid further down the seat, looking up at her.
"I promise. Go to bed, I'll make you both some soup, and then I'll leave you alone with your boyfriend, happy?" she teased him.
His face flushed. "H-hey, that's not fair…He's not my-"
"Bed, Carlisle. I could say worse," she threatened in a sing-song voice, slowly pulling me to my feet, but leaving Carlisle to move on his own.
"What's wrong with sitting here again?" he mumbled tiredly.
"The fact that when you are both sleep deprived and are a puddle of tears on the floor, I have to mop it up," she chuckled.
He moved that time, doing as he was told. "Garrett sleeps with no pants on by the way. You've been warned."
How the hell did how know that?! "Asshole," I grumbled, struggling not to laugh.
"Of course you would know that, Carlisle Cullen," she snickered.
He didn't respond, already in his room.